so anxiety is a feeling...

[bmccartney]

started cbt this week and has given me lots to think about. Anxiety is a feeling we create apparrently. nothing more nothing less...just a feeling. But why would we create this feeling...it is obviously a feeling we do not want and is not within our control. so if this is all true..we need to learn to change the way we think. if we change the way we think about something it should change the way we feel. But if you have constant daily anxiety and you do not know specifically what is causing this ...how can you change the way you think about it? Does this even make sense?

[JaneC]

Hi Barbara, if my experience of CBT is anything to go by, you will be helped to find out if there is something at the bottom of your anxiety, even if you are currently unaware of it. Are you going to be doing thought records to identify "hot thoughts" and the like? You say yourself you have only just started CBT - try to go with it and hopefully the more sessions you have, the more you will be able to see how it can help you x

[bmccartney]

thanks for your comments..i do intend to continue (that is for sure) I am in a RUSH for solutions it seems and maybe need to slow down and think about it all in a deeper way. i am keeping a journal and she wants me to bring it with me when i meet...once i find the root cause perhaps i will see improvement.

[harasgenster]

Hi

You're right that anxiety is simply a feeling, but it is within our control. The only reason it feels uncontrollable right now is because you don't know why it's happening. It's not always easy to havei insight as to what is going on inside your mind to make you feel anxious but the therapy should help you find out what it is and once you know what you are thinking about you will be able to challenge the thoughts, because they are doubtless irrational - that's what makes us anxious :)

Through CBT I've learned about different types of "warped" thinking which might mean things like jumping to conclusions - where you presume someone thinks a certain thing about you despite having no evidence - or all or nothing thinking - where you might assume you are a failure if you do not get something perfectly right.

This sort of investigation might be the sort of thing you'll be looking into. I've found it helpful and hope it all goes well for you :)